Work begins on last piece of SR-905

OTAY MESA  Ground was broken Tuesday in Otay Mesa on the final link in the $438 million State Route 905 project -- a substantial upgrade of the interchange with Interstate 805.

When completed the 6-lane, 6 .3 mile highway will be the workhorse of the cross-border economy, moving scores of big rigs back and forth across the Otay Mesa port of entry while connecting them with the open interstates leading to the northern markets.

The interchange is part of a billion dollars in projects designed to to expand and improve the roads leading to and from the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro ports of entry.

It was all ceremonial of course, but the final project was auspicious enough to draw the Federal Highway Administration’s top executive Victor M. Mendez to a windy bluff overlooking the highway to mark the occasion.

While waiting for the ceremony to begin, Mendez, one-time head of the Arizona Department of Transportation, took in the view – rolling fields of yellow flowers and the rumbling heavy equipment of road construction, bolstered by the constant churn of traffic on Otay Mesa Road, most of which will be cruising down the completed SR-905 by the summer of 2012.

“Just look around,” said the administrator with a flourish of his hand and a smile, “you see people working, getting the job done. This is what it is all about.”

Mendez was there because the $17.9 million needed to complete the project comes from his department, stimulus funds channeled through the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program.

“This interchange project would not be possible without Recovery Act dollars,” he said.

Mendez stressed the safety of the future roadway which connects directly to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. “This highway will separate the international traffic from the local traffic,” he noted, referring to the 68,000 vehicles which daily jam the parallel Otay Mesa Road, which doubles as SR 905 for now.

“That volume is estimated to triple by 2030,” he said. And with the recent agreement between the U.S. and Mexico to reopen U.S. roads to long-haul truckers from across the border, the traffic will be picking up soon.

Acting chief deputy director of Caltrans Malcolm Dougherty picked up on the infectious enthusiasm of Mendez. “Right now there are many construction jobs out there,” he said, with a nod to the earth moving being done nearby. “But once this trade corridor is open, it will create jobs for generations to come.”

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders sees other value in the new highway. “It is hard to overstate the importance of streamlining traffic at the border,” he said. “It is estimated that there will be 4 million trucks a year through here by 2020. That’s why this is so important.”

National City Mayor Ron Morrison, a board member of the regional planning agency San Diego Association of Governments, said the completed highway is expected to save 30 million “person hours” of travel time annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 216 thousand tons a year.

And that’s not all that is saved. When the interchange project was first drawn up it was priced at more than $20 million. In today’s competitive environment, bidding on the job brought the cost down to $17.9 million.